Concern over heavy cannabis use

Heavy cannabis use among vulnerable young people has a greater detrimental effect than the user realises, according to a new study.

A new report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation from the University of Bedfordshire found that young people with the greatest number of social problems exacerbate their situation by smoking the drug.

When asked about the positive and negative consequences of taking the drug, the young people initially only listed what they felt to be positive: relaxation, socialising, and the feeling of being stoned.

Interviewers found it was only when various aspects of their lives were probed in more detail that associations between their use and problems such as unemployment, educational under-achievement and homelessness became apparent particularly for those with less structured lives.

The report, published on Wednesday, found those with the greatest number of social problems tended to use most heavily.

Researchers, drawing on 100 interviews with 16 to 25-year-olds who smoked cannabis every day for the past six months, found the consequences for others, particularly those in higher or further education, appear to be relatively benign.

The report also found that some of the 30 professionals working with young people - such as youth workers and hostel workers - saw cannabis as less harmful than the young people in the study did.

Researchers have suggested this may be because of their differing experiences of cannabis use in previous decades, when high-strength herbal cannabis was less widely available.

A spokeswoman for the JRF said this "raises questions about professionals awareness of the potentially compounding effect of heavy cannabis use on the problems experienced by vulnerable or excluded young people particularly if young people are unlikely to identify these problems themselves."

Dr Margaret Melrose, the report's author, said: "Young people may not be aware of the extent to which cannabis use might exacerbate their existing social problems, and professionals who have had experience of cannabis users in the past may assume the effects are relatively harmless if they take young people's assessment of the impact of cannabis use in their lives at face value.